Phoenix Phun

Our destination: Sun City West, Arizona. Travel time: 5 days. Car was packed with plenty of movies, surprise presents for the dole drums, and snacks. We were ready to visit Grandpa and Grandma Bunny. (They were given that name per Daradie. She has fantasized about Grandma Bunny because of the coolness factor of her name and so they are both awarded the name "Bunny.") Our first lay over was in Las Vegas. Stayed at Circus Circus. Gave the kiddos a couple of free roller coaster ride tickets. (We secretly held some back for ourselves and ran downstairs once they were asleep and rode them ourselves.) Next stop was Arizona! Here is the whole gang at Grandpa Bunny's house. They were so worried that it was only 50 degrees there at the time. But hey, it was 50 degrees warmer there than at our house! Our kiddos were the only ones in the outside pool at the hotel. One afternoon we hiked to a waterfall and saw some petroglyphs along the way. (Petroglyphs are in the middle of the giant rock.) Cousin Aspen and Jackson came along with us. They were all glad to have someone to play and laugh and pretend with.
One night at the hotel we even had a fire alarm...at 3:30 A.M. Dan took the car keys and wallet and I just ripped off the blankets so we could wrap up in them. Daradie was "Miss Fire Drill" and told us all the procedures they did at school and how her parents were breaking all of them. We cuddled up in bedding in the car and watched a movie while we were all cleared to go back in. Every night we ran into some type of "interesting" problem in the hotels. This one just happened to be the most exciting for the whole family....for Dan and I. The kiddos were more scared and ole Daradie wanted her parents to behave more orderly in such a serious moment.

And a 4 generation shot with Great Grandpa David Johnson, Debbie, Dan, Daradie and Koen. Dan absolutely loves his grandpa. His grandpa collects guns, loves westerns, traveled all over USA in a motor home and has some great stories about his childhood. Plus, his grandpa thinks we moved to "God's country" and wishes he could travel more easily to spend all summer with us.
On the way home we stopped and toured the new bridge they built at Hoover Dam. While traveling, Dan and I played a little game during the many hours on the road. We kept track of how many states we'd come across on license plates and we found all but 11. Anyway, our kiddos did awesome in the car. It was a lot of driving for them. We had a few detours along the way such as road closures around Flagstaff from a severe storm, snow in Vegas (that town shuts down), an earthquake outside of Mesquite one night and witnessing the after effects of flooding from the Virgin River in St. George. And to think we missed some of those events by just hours!

As Koen said while being carried into bed, "I'm so glad to sleep in my own bed." It's good to be home...and begin shoveling off the sidewalks.